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Czekoladowy tort z Hitlerem
12-letnia dziewczynka.
Bunkier Hitlera.
Ostatnie dni III Rzeszy.
Tajny dziennik Helgi Goebbels.
Agonia III Rzeszy oczami 12-letniej dziewczynki.
22 kwietnia 1945 roku, ciasny, duszny, berliński bunkier –ostatnia wojenna siedziba Adolfa Hitlera. Pod ziemię, na zawsze, schodzą także Joseph i Magda Goebbels wraz z sześciorgiem dzieci. Najmłodsza Heidrunma cztery lata, najstarsza –Hegla, dwanaście.
Wokół radosnych dzieci do samego końca toczy się przerażająca gra pozorów. Ale Helga Goebbels widzi i rozumie o wiele więcej, niż dorośli są w stanie przypuszczać. Swoje przejmujące obserwacje i wspomnienia zapisuje w sekretnym dzienniku.
Świetnie udokumentowana opowieść o upadku Niemiec z perspektywy dziewczynki stała się prawdziwą wydawniczą sensacją. Bezsensowna śmierć szóstki niewinnych dzieci, zamordowanych przez matkę, pozostanie na zawsze symbolem obłędu nazistowskiej ideologii.
Bunkier Hitlera.
Ostatnie dni III Rzeszy.
Tajny dziennik Helgi Goebbels.
Agonia III Rzeszy oczami 12-letniej dziewczynki.
22 kwietnia 1945 roku, ciasny, duszny, berliński bunkier –ostatnia wojenna siedziba Adolfa Hitlera. Pod ziemię, na zawsze, schodzą także Joseph i Magda Goebbels wraz z sześciorgiem dzieci. Najmłodsza Heidrunma cztery lata, najstarsza –Hegla, dwanaście.
Wokół radosnych dzieci do samego końca toczy się przerażająca gra pozorów. Ale Helga Goebbels widzi i rozumie o wiele więcej, niż dorośli są w stanie przypuszczać. Swoje przejmujące obserwacje i wspomnienia zapisuje w sekretnym dzienniku.
Świetnie udokumentowana opowieść o upadku Niemiec z perspektywy dziewczynki stała się prawdziwą wydawniczą sensacją. Bezsensowna śmierć szóstki niewinnych dzieci, zamordowanych przez matkę, pozostanie na zawsze symbolem obłędu nazistowskiej ideologii.
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
October 2, 2011
This book allows you to see WWII through a German child's eyes, and it's no secret as to how this book ends. I've read about how the Goebbels (father was the Nazi's head of propaganda) brought their six children to the Hitler's bunker in Berlin, where they were later killed in their beds after the Russians completely took over. I always found it horrifying that a mother could believe in a cause so much that she would kill her children rather than let them live in a world without it. "Chocolate Cake with Hitler" tells the story of the oldest of these children, Helga, a mere 12-years-old, and her brief life and family's relationship with Hitler. While her story isn't as horrifying as those in concentration camps or ghettos, it is important to acknowledge that Hitler made innocent victims even out of those close and important to him.
August 1, 2013
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO no NO NO NO
October 7, 2017
For my full review: http://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/2...
I discovered this book in the fantastic second-hand bookshop in Wantage - that place is like an Aladdin's Cave but I always come out with huge bags of books so I can't allow myself to visit too often. Discovering a novel told from the perspective of Helga Goebbels was one of my best finds yet - I have been saying for years that her story and that of her siblings needed to be told. Murdered by their parents in Hitler's bunker during the final days of World War Two, when Rochus Misch campaigned for a plaque in these children's memory back in 2005, the appeal was blocked on the grounds of insensitivity towards the Holocaust victims. Since the very early days of the website, I have been open about my loathing of The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. I'm not keen on censorship as a concept but that is one book whose publication I would describe as truly reprehensible and it upsets me that John Boyne's sick fairy-tale re-imagining of the Holocaust got a big screen adaptation while these real life murder victims are relegated to a paragraph in a history book or five minutes in the background of a documentary. Here, Emma Craigie grants a voice to one of these poor lost children and does so with sensitivity but without ever stooping to sentimentality.
I only stumbled across the story of the Goebbels children while researching my history course essay during my A levels. I remember how shocking it was to realise how the same extremist logic which made these people look at the Jewish nation and decide that they did not deserve to live could extend to allow them to look at their own children and feel that the best thing to do would be to kill them. The children's maternal grandmother never discovered what became of the children's bodies although it was noted that when the bunker was stormed, the six of them were lying dead in their nightclothes and that the girls all had ribbons in their hair. I discovered inadvertently while researching this post that photographs of the children's lifeless bodies are freely available on the Internet. I had not wanted to know that. The Goebbels brood had led a gilded life, been given every advantage and had been great favourites with Hitler himself. The eldest, Helga, was only twelve.
The story begins with the Helga thinking back to her first memory, of 'Uncle Leader' telling her that she is his favourite girl in the world when she was around three years old. From there the story threads back and forth between Helga's memories of growing up in the heart of the Nazi party and then where she is now, in the Bunker with Uncle Leader himself, the main plot counting down through the final ten days of the children's lives. Craigie handles her child narrator with great sensitivity, never resorting to mawkishness but capturing vividly this girl just teetering on the brink of understanding, knowing that there is something going on that she is not being told but having nobody to turn to.
The passages in the bunker are heavy with tension - the children go through their normal routines with rationed meals, daily lessons and performances for Uncle Leader's enjoyment. Uncle Leader gorges on chocolate cake and spills his tea because his hands are shaking so much, his moods even darker than usual and all the adults on a knife-edge, trying to keep him on an even keel. It is a confusing place for a child to be and Helga cannot help but notice that none of the other senior Nazi party members have brought their offspring there - all have made excuses. Younger brother Helmut takes pride in the fact that there is not a bunk for him so he has to sleep on the floor, believing himself to be making a sacrifice for the German people, youngest sister Heide sings songs that make even Uncle Leader laugh and it seems to be only Helga who listens to the sound of the bombs overhead and wonders what is going to become of them all.
Thinking back, Helga remembers all of the conversations she had with her maternal grandmother about her mother Magda's childhood. Craigie does well here at drawing out the wildly varied life story of Magda Goebbels in a relatively organic way. I had no idea how chequered her past was - deeply unsettled childhood and home life, growing up in a convent, the teenage affair with a young Jewish man, an early first marriage to a man old enough to be her father, a tragic probable love that she had for her stepson who died young of appendicitis. Helga also has that mixture of stoicism and cynicism about her parents' marriage, showing an awareness of her father's mistress and that Uncle Leader will never allow them to divorce - she is twelve, she is still an innocent but she is beginning to open her eyes to the world. Sitting in the bunker though, Helga wishes that her parents were not such 'goodies', that they were less worried about loyalty and doing the right thing by Hitler so that the family could all just flee from what was happening around them. What a strange and twisted thing that the Goebbels did, believing themselves on the moral high ground.
Craigie has clearly put in a huge amount of research here, charting the comings and goings within the Bunker on an almost minute by minute level but yet it never feels that the information has been crow-barred in. The children are at a loose end, nobody really has time to look after them and Helga is desperate to know what is happening outside. The puppies which have given the children such solace abruptly vanish, there is a strange smell of marzipan then Uncle Leader stops coming out of his room and then there is a kerfuffle and two loud bangs are heard. Chocolate Cake With Hitler is frightening because it describes very vividly the experience of being a child, having no control over your own destiny. Craigie sketches out her vision of Helga's world and it is full of walls, not just the physical ones within the Bunker but also mental ones. The adults do not want to hear any complaints which the children might have and they do not want to answer their questions.
Helga frets and worries, we feel her anxiety and know what her end will be and it is tough, tough, tough to know that this lively young girl who loved her Daddy so much, loved her Mummy too, that she will meet her end by them. The book was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in the year of its publication in 2011, meaning that it was marketed as a children's book. Despite the child narrator, there are obvious issues about presenting this story to a child audience. Yet I have seen ten and eleven year olds reading The Boy in Striped Pyjamas - is that a more acceptable read for children since you can reassure them afterwards that it would have been literally impossible for a child to meet his end the way Bruno does in that? Or does Chocolate Cake With Hitler offer an interesting opportunity for discussion with a child about what extremism can make people do? I have always been in favour of books that prompt thought and Chocolate Cake With Hitler has certainly done that for me.
At barely 180 pages, this is not a long read and with its helpful 'Who's Who' at the end, it is easy enough to keep track of the characters' names even if one does not have an existing interest in the period. Despite the dark subject matter, Craigie is a writer of real warmth showing sympathy and a desire to understand all of the characters she makes use of, no matter their real life deeds. The letters from Josef and Magda Goebbels to her son from her first marriage are what close out the novel, both of them boasting proudly of their loyalty to the Leader and their readiness to meet their end, but yet we hear that both of them had backgrounds which twisted their nature and that only in Nazism had they ever found true acceptance. What they did was unspeakably evil but we would be foolish if we dismissed them as moral aberrations - they were both all too human, humans caught up in the light of fanaticism and willing to sacrifice their children in the service of it.
Both intensely compelling and highly readable, Chocolate Cake With Hitler ventures into very sensitive territory but Craigie treads the tightrope with aplomb. Her depiction of Helga Goebbels is one of a convincing twelve year-old girl, meaning that she never ventures into cutesiness or being patronising. Helga is not playing for sympathy, nor is she trying to charm us - she is just trying to figure out what on earth is going on. It feels right that her story be told and that it should be told in such a way that other children can understand what happened. We should remember that these children lived, that they had no part in their father's crimes. Helga's face showed sign of bruising on post-mortem, meaning that force was likely needed to make her swallow the cyanide - neither she nor her siblings wanted to die. This is a bruising read but one that I am so glad that someone has gotten around to writing.
I discovered this book in the fantastic second-hand bookshop in Wantage - that place is like an Aladdin's Cave but I always come out with huge bags of books so I can't allow myself to visit too often. Discovering a novel told from the perspective of Helga Goebbels was one of my best finds yet - I have been saying for years that her story and that of her siblings needed to be told. Murdered by their parents in Hitler's bunker during the final days of World War Two, when Rochus Misch campaigned for a plaque in these children's memory back in 2005, the appeal was blocked on the grounds of insensitivity towards the Holocaust victims. Since the very early days of the website, I have been open about my loathing of The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. I'm not keen on censorship as a concept but that is one book whose publication I would describe as truly reprehensible and it upsets me that John Boyne's sick fairy-tale re-imagining of the Holocaust got a big screen adaptation while these real life murder victims are relegated to a paragraph in a history book or five minutes in the background of a documentary. Here, Emma Craigie grants a voice to one of these poor lost children and does so with sensitivity but without ever stooping to sentimentality.
I only stumbled across the story of the Goebbels children while researching my history course essay during my A levels. I remember how shocking it was to realise how the same extremist logic which made these people look at the Jewish nation and decide that they did not deserve to live could extend to allow them to look at their own children and feel that the best thing to do would be to kill them. The children's maternal grandmother never discovered what became of the children's bodies although it was noted that when the bunker was stormed, the six of them were lying dead in their nightclothes and that the girls all had ribbons in their hair. I discovered inadvertently while researching this post that photographs of the children's lifeless bodies are freely available on the Internet. I had not wanted to know that. The Goebbels brood had led a gilded life, been given every advantage and had been great favourites with Hitler himself. The eldest, Helga, was only twelve.
The story begins with the Helga thinking back to her first memory, of 'Uncle Leader' telling her that she is his favourite girl in the world when she was around three years old. From there the story threads back and forth between Helga's memories of growing up in the heart of the Nazi party and then where she is now, in the Bunker with Uncle Leader himself, the main plot counting down through the final ten days of the children's lives. Craigie handles her child narrator with great sensitivity, never resorting to mawkishness but capturing vividly this girl just teetering on the brink of understanding, knowing that there is something going on that she is not being told but having nobody to turn to.
The passages in the bunker are heavy with tension - the children go through their normal routines with rationed meals, daily lessons and performances for Uncle Leader's enjoyment. Uncle Leader gorges on chocolate cake and spills his tea because his hands are shaking so much, his moods even darker than usual and all the adults on a knife-edge, trying to keep him on an even keel. It is a confusing place for a child to be and Helga cannot help but notice that none of the other senior Nazi party members have brought their offspring there - all have made excuses. Younger brother Helmut takes pride in the fact that there is not a bunk for him so he has to sleep on the floor, believing himself to be making a sacrifice for the German people, youngest sister Heide sings songs that make even Uncle Leader laugh and it seems to be only Helga who listens to the sound of the bombs overhead and wonders what is going to become of them all.
Thinking back, Helga remembers all of the conversations she had with her maternal grandmother about her mother Magda's childhood. Craigie does well here at drawing out the wildly varied life story of Magda Goebbels in a relatively organic way. I had no idea how chequered her past was - deeply unsettled childhood and home life, growing up in a convent, the teenage affair with a young Jewish man, an early first marriage to a man old enough to be her father, a tragic probable love that she had for her stepson who died young of appendicitis. Helga also has that mixture of stoicism and cynicism about her parents' marriage, showing an awareness of her father's mistress and that Uncle Leader will never allow them to divorce - she is twelve, she is still an innocent but she is beginning to open her eyes to the world. Sitting in the bunker though, Helga wishes that her parents were not such 'goodies', that they were less worried about loyalty and doing the right thing by Hitler so that the family could all just flee from what was happening around them. What a strange and twisted thing that the Goebbels did, believing themselves on the moral high ground.
Craigie has clearly put in a huge amount of research here, charting the comings and goings within the Bunker on an almost minute by minute level but yet it never feels that the information has been crow-barred in. The children are at a loose end, nobody really has time to look after them and Helga is desperate to know what is happening outside. The puppies which have given the children such solace abruptly vanish, there is a strange smell of marzipan then Uncle Leader stops coming out of his room and then there is a kerfuffle and two loud bangs are heard. Chocolate Cake With Hitler is frightening because it describes very vividly the experience of being a child, having no control over your own destiny. Craigie sketches out her vision of Helga's world and it is full of walls, not just the physical ones within the Bunker but also mental ones. The adults do not want to hear any complaints which the children might have and they do not want to answer their questions.
Helga frets and worries, we feel her anxiety and know what her end will be and it is tough, tough, tough to know that this lively young girl who loved her Daddy so much, loved her Mummy too, that she will meet her end by them. The book was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in the year of its publication in 2011, meaning that it was marketed as a children's book. Despite the child narrator, there are obvious issues about presenting this story to a child audience. Yet I have seen ten and eleven year olds reading The Boy in Striped Pyjamas - is that a more acceptable read for children since you can reassure them afterwards that it would have been literally impossible for a child to meet his end the way Bruno does in that? Or does Chocolate Cake With Hitler offer an interesting opportunity for discussion with a child about what extremism can make people do? I have always been in favour of books that prompt thought and Chocolate Cake With Hitler has certainly done that for me.
At barely 180 pages, this is not a long read and with its helpful 'Who's Who' at the end, it is easy enough to keep track of the characters' names even if one does not have an existing interest in the period. Despite the dark subject matter, Craigie is a writer of real warmth showing sympathy and a desire to understand all of the characters she makes use of, no matter their real life deeds. The letters from Josef and Magda Goebbels to her son from her first marriage are what close out the novel, both of them boasting proudly of their loyalty to the Leader and their readiness to meet their end, but yet we hear that both of them had backgrounds which twisted their nature and that only in Nazism had they ever found true acceptance. What they did was unspeakably evil but we would be foolish if we dismissed them as moral aberrations - they were both all too human, humans caught up in the light of fanaticism and willing to sacrifice their children in the service of it.
Both intensely compelling and highly readable, Chocolate Cake With Hitler ventures into very sensitive territory but Craigie treads the tightrope with aplomb. Her depiction of Helga Goebbels is one of a convincing twelve year-old girl, meaning that she never ventures into cutesiness or being patronising. Helga is not playing for sympathy, nor is she trying to charm us - she is just trying to figure out what on earth is going on. It feels right that her story be told and that it should be told in such a way that other children can understand what happened. We should remember that these children lived, that they had no part in their father's crimes. Helga's face showed sign of bruising on post-mortem, meaning that force was likely needed to make her swallow the cyanide - neither she nor her siblings wanted to die. This is a bruising read but one that I am so glad that someone has gotten around to writing.
June 27, 2020
Very easy read and a compelling version of the last days in Hitler’s bunker from the point of view of the Goebbels children. The interspersed flashbacks were fascinating and gave the story depth. The impending sense of doom was carefully crafted so never melodramatic.
October 13, 2017
I think this would have been a better magazine article than a novel, as the underlying facts are interesting. But even when embroidered with motivation and inner thoughts, those facts aren't enough content to justify the full-length treatment. The writer was clever to structure this in flashbacks that explained the lead-up to the end, as well as a daily diary of those final days. All good. But in a way the writer was too bound by those facts to give us more than supposed thoughts and feelings. Part of the problem was Helga's age - just how much personal history could she have had by that age? Yet there are great books out there told from a child's point of view, so that in itself should not be a barrier. It might have been a stronger book - and a longer one - if it had been a family history of the Goebbels clan, and led gradually up to the decision to stay in the bunker.
January 14, 2023
I found the whole premise of this book pretty weird? I get the idea of exploring what happened in the bunker and discussing the lives of the Goebbels children, but I find the mixture of fact vs fiction quite odd in this context.
Also I don't know if it's just me, but being made to feel sorry for Nazi families because they couldn't live in their house on the lake or play with the puppies in the bunker is rather uncomfortable given that we're fully aware of the atrocities they committed at the same time.
Also I don't know if it's just me, but being made to feel sorry for Nazi families because they couldn't live in their house on the lake or play with the puppies in the bunker is rather uncomfortable given that we're fully aware of the atrocities they committed at the same time.
May 24, 2025
3.5 stars ⭐️ Really interesting concept for a book. Set in Hitler's bunker in his final days, this tells the story of the last days of the Nazi regime - through the eyes of a child. Such a sad story about the Goebbel children and the shocking fanaticism of their mother.
July 9, 2023
Compelling story about the final days in the Reich Chancellery bunker as told from the imagined perspective of 12 year old Helge Goebbels.
March 23, 2011
I found this book resting at the back of a shelf in my school library. Having learnt about the Nazi Germany period in History and getting tested on it in June, I thought it would be a good idea to have a read. It looked interesting too and is a true story. I kind of had to pick it up.
Synopsis: This tells the story of the final days of Helga Goebbels living in the underground bunker with her family and Hitler in April 1945. At twelve years old, she is stuck in the double level bunker with no news but the stories the adults around her tell her to know what is happening in the outside world. As the gun fires draw nearer and slowly the bunker starts to empty, Helga is the only Goebbels child to wonder what is actually happening. Her father, the minister of propaganda (something that helped with Hitler lead in power) and Hitler's best friend, is never there and distracted when he is. Her mother won't look her in the eye. People want her and her 4 sisters and brother out of here. But why?
The Truth: On the 30th April 1945, a gun shot was heard from the upper bunker. In his sitting room, Hitler shot himself and his new wife, Eva Braun took a cynide tablet, having tested it on Hitler's dog and her puppies a few days earlier. The next day, on the 1st May 1945, after lunch without Uncle 'Leader' and Auntie Eva, Helga and her siblings were taken to their rooms for an early night for a trip to see the puppies in the gardens of Berlin the next day. But first she needs her injection for not catching any illnesses in the intense, cramp bunker. This was in fact morphine which sent the children to sleep and then they were forced to take a cynide tablet, killing them. Josef Goebbels and his wife later on went outside and while Goebbels shot himself, his wife took a cynide tablet, killing them too. Their grandmother could never figure out where her daughter and grandchildren had disappeared to.
Review: After studying this in History including Hitler's death, I knew what happened to the children which is sort of why I picked this up, interesting to see how the author would do it. This is a truly heart breaking, sad story of a child that never had a proper life in her 'golden' childhood for the cameras and their propaganda.
The story is broken up with the ten days in the bunker and with the years before from 1935. This makes it more interesting and shows the relationship with other characters before the war and then now at the end of the war. I found out a lot of things about the different people through this, more than I knew. It really does give you that image and the feelings of what it would have been like to be living in that bunker, everyone slowly leaving.
The nice thing was at the end, there was a Postscript describing what happened from 29th April - 1st May 1945 and why they died etc. They killed themselves because they knew they would lose the war with the Russians practically in Berlin anyway. They knew they'd have been executed anyway for war crimes. They wanted to die when everything hadn't fallen apart completely yet. Added after this postscript was a glossary of all the people mentioned with what happened to them after the war. This was so interesting to read while reading also the story which meant you kind of knew their fate. Some are really heart-breaking like when Miss Kempf failed to persuade Mrs Goebbels to send the children on a barge and learnt of their deaths, she spend the rest of her life working for disabled children. That made me smile. So much research has been put into this.
This isn't the type of book you read when you are sad and depressed or if you had history. This is the type of book for those that love History and is so interesting and really makes you visualise and almost feel through the dialogue what being in that bunker was like and the strained relationships and temperaments of Hitler's mind. I would definitely recommend it to anyone doing GCSE History or if they like this period of time. I know I have basically said the outcome and plot but well, it explains it too on the blurb. The story just ends. Suddenly. And I liked how it did. It made me feel so sad. Why kill the children, that next generation that they wanted? I don't know but who knows why the Nazi's existed and got away with it to easily? Well, that was mostly out of terror.
Anyway, this book is a must-read at only 180 pages. Read it. I promise you'll enjoy every minute of this book and leave you reflecting over life itself and how easily it can be thrown away.
I give it 5 out of 5
Synopsis: This tells the story of the final days of Helga Goebbels living in the underground bunker with her family and Hitler in April 1945. At twelve years old, she is stuck in the double level bunker with no news but the stories the adults around her tell her to know what is happening in the outside world. As the gun fires draw nearer and slowly the bunker starts to empty, Helga is the only Goebbels child to wonder what is actually happening. Her father, the minister of propaganda (something that helped with Hitler lead in power) and Hitler's best friend, is never there and distracted when he is. Her mother won't look her in the eye. People want her and her 4 sisters and brother out of here. But why?
The Truth: On the 30th April 1945, a gun shot was heard from the upper bunker. In his sitting room, Hitler shot himself and his new wife, Eva Braun took a cynide tablet, having tested it on Hitler's dog and her puppies a few days earlier. The next day, on the 1st May 1945, after lunch without Uncle 'Leader' and Auntie Eva, Helga and her siblings were taken to their rooms for an early night for a trip to see the puppies in the gardens of Berlin the next day. But first she needs her injection for not catching any illnesses in the intense, cramp bunker. This was in fact morphine which sent the children to sleep and then they were forced to take a cynide tablet, killing them. Josef Goebbels and his wife later on went outside and while Goebbels shot himself, his wife took a cynide tablet, killing them too. Their grandmother could never figure out where her daughter and grandchildren had disappeared to.
Review: After studying this in History including Hitler's death, I knew what happened to the children which is sort of why I picked this up, interesting to see how the author would do it. This is a truly heart breaking, sad story of a child that never had a proper life in her 'golden' childhood for the cameras and their propaganda.
The story is broken up with the ten days in the bunker and with the years before from 1935. This makes it more interesting and shows the relationship with other characters before the war and then now at the end of the war. I found out a lot of things about the different people through this, more than I knew. It really does give you that image and the feelings of what it would have been like to be living in that bunker, everyone slowly leaving.
The nice thing was at the end, there was a Postscript describing what happened from 29th April - 1st May 1945 and why they died etc. They killed themselves because they knew they would lose the war with the Russians practically in Berlin anyway. They knew they'd have been executed anyway for war crimes. They wanted to die when everything hadn't fallen apart completely yet. Added after this postscript was a glossary of all the people mentioned with what happened to them after the war. This was so interesting to read while reading also the story which meant you kind of knew their fate. Some are really heart-breaking like when Miss Kempf failed to persuade Mrs Goebbels to send the children on a barge and learnt of their deaths, she spend the rest of her life working for disabled children. That made me smile. So much research has been put into this.
This isn't the type of book you read when you are sad and depressed or if you had history. This is the type of book for those that love History and is so interesting and really makes you visualise and almost feel through the dialogue what being in that bunker was like and the strained relationships and temperaments of Hitler's mind. I would definitely recommend it to anyone doing GCSE History or if they like this period of time. I know I have basically said the outcome and plot but well, it explains it too on the blurb. The story just ends. Suddenly. And I liked how it did. It made me feel so sad. Why kill the children, that next generation that they wanted? I don't know but who knows why the Nazi's existed and got away with it to easily? Well, that was mostly out of terror.
Anyway, this book is a must-read at only 180 pages. Read it. I promise you'll enjoy every minute of this book and leave you reflecting over life itself and how easily it can be thrown away.
I give it 5 out of 5
July 27, 2016
I was drawn to this book by the photo on the front cover - the girl who looked so accustomed to posing for a photo. The obedient child who looked like she was used to being trotted out for propoganda opportunities, but who didn't really have any true connection to the person she was posing with. I was also drawn to the idea of seeing the last days of WWII from the eyes of a child who was born on the Nazi side of the conflict, as in my mind children of the era didn't get to choose how they responded to the war, they were simply caught up in it, and these children ended up being victims as much as children on the other side.
I was disappointed by the book because I didn't really feel that I got a sense of who the Nazis were when they weren't warmongering. While the book was historically very accurate, it didn't give me much of a sense of atmosphere. In some ways perhaps Helga wasn't the best pick for a narrator. As an obedient 12 year old she was excluded from a lot of what happened in the bunker in spite of it being a small space. So to better understand what was going on, and what she witnessed you need to do more research (for example Helga talks about hearing music in the night, but doesn't ever find out that Hitler married Eva Braun and that was what the music was about). I guess I had hoped for a few more over heard conversations and the likes.
The notes at the end of the book that explain more of the background make for quite interesting reading.
I was disappointed by the book because I didn't really feel that I got a sense of who the Nazis were when they weren't warmongering. While the book was historically very accurate, it didn't give me much of a sense of atmosphere. In some ways perhaps Helga wasn't the best pick for a narrator. As an obedient 12 year old she was excluded from a lot of what happened in the bunker in spite of it being a small space. So to better understand what was going on, and what she witnessed you need to do more research (for example Helga talks about hearing music in the night, but doesn't ever find out that Hitler married Eva Braun and that was what the music was about). I guess I had hoped for a few more over heard conversations and the likes.
The notes at the end of the book that explain more of the background make for quite interesting reading.
December 6, 2010
Although this is work of fiction, the history and the outcome are true to fact. The book is written from the perspective of 12 year old Helga Goebbels, who along with her entire family, died in the bunker with Adolf Hitler at the end of World War II. It explores the innocence of the children who had no idea how serious the situation in Germany was and how they placed their total trust in their parents and Uncle Leader (Adolf Hitler.) The book is a quick read. It brings to light the fact that even the German children suffered as a result of Hitler's ideas and edicts. The author writes a who's who at the end of the book telling us what happened to all those who are mentioned in the novel.
May 16, 2011
Story of the final days of the Third Reich told through the eyes of Helga Goebbels. A touching enough read that imagines how the 13 year old might have viewed her last days in Hitler's bunker and her experience of the war preceding the downfall. A nice companion to the film Downfall, in which the scene of the Goebbels children's poisoning by their mother is haunting and arguably the most memorable. However, it feels as though the author has perhaps unnecessarily crowbarred some of the trivia from the bunker into the narrative and alludes to famous events of WWII with something of a wink to her audience at times which brings the reader momentarily away from Helga's story.
April 3, 2011
Wow! An amazing book. It's about six siblings and their parents--their Papa is Head of Propaganda for the Nazi Party--who are living in a bunker with Hitler--'Uncle Leader'--and other high-profile Nazis in the last ten days of their lives. The ending felt tragic without being melodramatic or over-the-top and the whole idea of the story is fascinating.
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May 24, 2010this book is an amazing read. i was entranced in it. at the end i just cried and cried. i cant believe its a true story.
December 12, 2018
Chocolate Cake with Hitler by Emma Craigie - Good
Oh, this was an interesting read (and the last of my parallel read with Muriel Spark's short stories). It's a fictionalised version of Helga Goebbels' life as if written by her.
It begins with a photograph being taken of Helga and 'uncle leader'. The author has taken the body language of the child as she leans away from Hitler and spun a whole story of Helga and her life and how it ended in a bunker in Berlin as the Russians approached.
Obviously, there's no way of really knowing what happened in her life or what actually took place in the bunker, but the author has taken a number of known events and a number of real characters and created something very readable and plausible. Makes me wonder what sort of adults the Goebbels children might have become. What isn't a surprise is that the adults were perfectly prepared to murder these children rather than getting them to safety. That Edda Goering and Albert Speer's children survived proves that they did not all have to die.
Obviously, there's no way of really knowing what happened in her life or what actually took place in the bunker, but the author has taken a number of known events and a number of real characters and created something very readable and plausible. Makes me wonder what sort of adults the Goebbels children might have become. What isn't a surprise is that the adults were perfectly prepared to murder these children rather than getting them to safety. That Edda Goering and Albert Speer's children survived proves that they did not all have to die.
Oh, this was an interesting read (and the last of my parallel read with Muriel Spark's short stories). It's a fictionalised version of Helga Goebbels' life as if written by her.
It begins with a photograph being taken of Helga and 'uncle leader'. The author has taken the body language of the child as she leans away from Hitler and spun a whole story of Helga and her life and how it ended in a bunker in Berlin as the Russians approached.
Obviously, there's no way of really knowing what happened in her life or what actually took place in the bunker, but the author has taken a number of known events and a number of real characters and created something very readable and plausible. Makes me wonder what sort of adults the Goebbels children might have become. What isn't a surprise is that the adults were perfectly prepared to murder these children rather than getting them to safety. That Edda Goering and Albert Speer's children survived proves that they did not all have to die.
Obviously, there's no way of really knowing what happened in her life or what actually took place in the bunker, but the author has taken a number of known events and a number of real characters and created something very readable and plausible. Makes me wonder what sort of adults the Goebbels children might have become. What isn't a surprise is that the adults were perfectly prepared to murder these children rather than getting them to safety. That Edda Goering and Albert Speer's children survived proves that they did not all have to die.
September 12, 2019
Compelling and sad read - fact and fiction combined.
Helga, is the oldest daughter of the Goebbels family and she is the narrator of the book. She is 12 years old and tells of the time spent with Hitler et al in his bunker in 1945. She, with her 5 siblings, is taken to this multi-floored bunker a week before Hitler's suicide. Her parents are also there but are more concerned with proving their loyalty to the Fuhrer than spending time with the children.
Helga recalls her life leading up to this time. The reader also learns about her mother's life as related to Helga by her grandmother, who ultimately never sees her daughter and grandchildren again.
Helga is suspicious of the adults' behaviour in the bunker but struggles to find an explanation for this. As one reviewer has said, this book "is frightening because it describes very vividly the experience of being a child, having no control over your own destiny". The reviewer points out that Helga's world is full of walls, both physical and mental.
The roles of the real-life characters are explained at the end of the book.
Helga, is the oldest daughter of the Goebbels family and she is the narrator of the book. She is 12 years old and tells of the time spent with Hitler et al in his bunker in 1945. She, with her 5 siblings, is taken to this multi-floored bunker a week before Hitler's suicide. Her parents are also there but are more concerned with proving their loyalty to the Fuhrer than spending time with the children.
Helga recalls her life leading up to this time. The reader also learns about her mother's life as related to Helga by her grandmother, who ultimately never sees her daughter and grandchildren again.
Helga is suspicious of the adults' behaviour in the bunker but struggles to find an explanation for this. As one reviewer has said, this book "is frightening because it describes very vividly the experience of being a child, having no control over your own destiny". The reviewer points out that Helga's world is full of walls, both physical and mental.
The roles of the real-life characters are explained at the end of the book.
February 6, 2020
I am a bit disappointed with this novel. I wasn't a fan of the way the novel bounced back and forth in time. It was confusing unless you paid specific attention to the title of the section with gave the year. There were repeated recollections that I didn't understand. For instance, more than once Helga mentions her mother telling them they would need a shot, a vaccination to prevent disease from soldiers but I would assume it would have been said only one time.
The novel's concept was intriguing to me. I have read a lot about WWII and the Holocaust, this was the first time that I read anything written from a Nazi child's viewpoint. I wish I had like the novel more
The novel's concept was intriguing to me. I have read a lot about WWII and the Holocaust, this was the first time that I read anything written from a Nazi child's viewpoint. I wish I had like the novel more
February 26, 2021
Easy read in terms of length. I thought it wouldn’t be such an easy read in terms of subject, but surprisingly it was. I think this is to do with the fact that it’s very thin in terms of historical fact in the actual story & a lot of passages and remarks require the reader to have a large depth of understanding on WW2 & Hitler for perhaps a more fulfilling read.
As it’s from a child’s perspective, a lot is to be understood subliminally & although I understand this device in making it believable, I felt it left something to be desired.
2 stars for concept though. That was indeed intriguing.
As it’s from a child’s perspective, a lot is to be understood subliminally & although I understand this device in making it believable, I felt it left something to be desired.
2 stars for concept though. That was indeed intriguing.
August 6, 2018
Read with my 14 year old daughter who had been researching the last days of the Nazis/Hitler for the past couple years while writing her own book about Hitler's dog Blondi on which he tested out the cyanide. I can't speak for how kids who haven't learned about this would like this book, but my daughter really liked it. It has some quirks re: point of view that are a bit clunky but we weren't too bothered by it. It tells the sad story very well.
World War II, WWII, Germany, Berlin
World War II, WWII, Germany, Berlin
September 1, 2019
I really liked this book, (as I have a liking for all WWII books), but this one was really different and interesting is the sense that you are used to reading about the war from a Jew's perspective, as appose to a German's. Although my one criticism was that the characters were not really explained/ introduced, which made the story a bit hard to follow at the beginning, so I think the character log should've been at the front of the book instead of the back.
January 20, 2018
Set in some of the most shocking times in history, this is told with childhood naivety. Many of the details are about everyday life - as unusual as it was. The actual historical events are shocking, particularly what happened to the Helga and her siblings. I enjoyed how the author has imagined what children might think of Hitler and his behaviour.
February 15, 2023
No complaints,I enjoyed reading this book I just wasn’t amazed by it the plot was based on a real story of a nazi family in ww2 which made it more interesting but I wasn’t overly invested in the characters
August 23, 2017
A great historical fiction novel about the Nazi War. And it was from the German's point of view!
The ending is sad though, as Helga and the other kids are killed :(
The ending is sad though, as Helga and the other kids are killed :(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2017
Interesting story, but a lot of exposition which made it kinda boring.
January 18, 2018
Good read. I never before knew that the Gobbel children were in the bunker along with their parents and I like how the author used Helga as a narrator.
March 4, 2018
Educational quick read. Based on fact but told as witnessed by a child.
August 14, 2018
i liked this book but the truth about what really happened was very sad, would not recommend this book.
February 2, 2019
Very good fictional description of Helga Goebbels’s life and her family. The historical fact really haunted me and I was glad that someone wrote a book about it.
March 31, 2019
This year i have really gotten into historical fiction so this book was a delight to read!
May 31, 2019
I feel a little depressed after reading this tbh. I might need a few days to process things. But it was great! Really!
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